


if i hadn't talked to the birds, tell me, how would i know about freedom?

by red_flag



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Shelby curses a lot, Spirit/Human relationship, Spirits, but in her head, i think i am funny when i'm actually not, idiots to lovers, island au, like a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:07:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_flag/pseuds/red_flag
Summary: A crashed plane. Seven girls. One island in the middle of the ocean.An island that, apparently, couldn’t be called deserted.There was an actual elf standing right there. And judging by the way she pointed a goddamned spear at Shelby, the elf was a pretty fucking angry one.orToni is the lone - inhuman - resident of the island the girls crashed on. She is not happy about this development.
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 30
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. If you think i know what this is, then you are thinking wrong. I have no idea what this is or where it is going. I cannot write Morden AUs, this series gives me little to write an after canon AU, so i wrote a AU on canon.
> 
> 2\. Based on a thought that couldn't get out of my head, so I wrote it messily. IF this continues, changes will happen in this part from the beginning to the end.
> 
> 3\. So, the plane actually crashed in this. There is no experiement, rescue is ineed on the way. BUT Toni is not in the cluster of our girls, quite opposite I pictured her as a spirit of the island's forest and that's it. That's the plot and this is how the story is gonna play out. A spirit/elf/fantasy creature that can talk with animals and the elements and the trees and suddenly seven humans are in her homeland. And she falls in love with one (shocker, i know).
> 
> 4\. Tell me your thoughts, those are literally mine. There is nothing else. So you may add things and help me make this actually interesting.
> 
> 5\. More like Nature Study rather than Character Study, cause i have a soft spot for fantasy worlds and deserted islands.
> 
> 6\. Shelby is not in such denial of her sexuality as she is in canon because that holds just too much angst for this and for me to write at this point of life, so she is like aware of the gay thoughts in her head, but stands against them in a more like "I need to quit being such a lesbian Jesus Christ help me" way.
> 
> Happy reading this mess.

“So water search?” Shelby cleared her throat, praying to God one of those girls would agree to come with her. The running and saltwater still clanged on her tongue and mouth and throat and she needed a few long gulps of the clear liquid to ease the taste and rather drilling headache.

“Yeah, let’s go”, Rachel nodded once, helping her up on tired feet.

A few miles in the hike, they decided to split up to cover more ground. Rachel was good; quick mind and sharp tongue and a stamina Shelby couldn’t match to save her life, but the athlete kept buzzing with an intense energy full of frustration and barely tamed anger about a situation they couldn’t really change. Shelby was mostly sure she came along to get away from her sister and get a first taste of what this island really had in store for them.

The island… Dear God, from the sea, it had seemed like a very small piece of land hovering in the horizon. Shelby had still been coughing the burning mouthfuls of saltwater, when she caught sight of it _right there._ The view of green and grey in the middle of so much blue, worked like fuel in Shelby’s aching legs; the ocean’s currents and rather gentle waves helped her push closer and closer to this miracle of safety.

Luggage and pieces of metal had been floating around Shelby, the yellow vest around her body having been sliced and blew out bubbles of air and – _God really was indeed testing her, wasn’t He?_ – it had been a fight to pull it off and swim over the beach. The island had started to become bigger with each lap, the mountain in the middle growing taller, the land widening and the green transforming into something like a jungle that crawled over the sharp stones and cliffs like a spider net.

The stinging pain of her body after hitting the water had grown heavier and deeper with each weak kick of her feet in the water, the muscles of her legs and arms starting to tremble with exhaustion. But the Lord had seemed to decide a little help wouldn’t hurt – as the sea kept pushing her forwards, in a strange sync with her uneven laps. In the middle of the way, the water currents had done most of the work of leading Shelby’s body to the shore and her mind had kept repeating the same thankful prayer.

And then, _ungracefully_ , the water had spat her out on the dark sand like trash.

Okay, no.

She might have been too tired to find any kind of footing and drag herself out on the beach and had let the water do the work again.

Either way, Shelby had found herself cheek down on wet sand, trembling uselessly and deeply coughing, due to the water burning her throat and lugs. It had felt as if the blood running through her veins had become a million times heavier than normal, the organ in her chest pumping too fast against its ribcage – as if seeking for a way out of her body. The foaming water had kept lapping at her spent body, clawing on the soaking wet fabric of her clothes and eating away at the dark sand underneath her body.

She had felt like a miserable, wet cat.

The panic had kind of started there, because she had been alone in a narrow piece of the beach, near the foot of a tall bluff. Adrenaline and anxiety had urged her limbs to _move_ – jerk up into a standing position, cold water dripping down her skin and clothes and forming a puddle of mud underneath her shoes on the wet sand.

The empty horizon had stared back mockingly.

The remaining cloudy line of dark smoke had cut the open sky in half, but whatever had been left of their plane had already sunk under the surface of the sea.

Now… Now, what?

_Now, what?!_

A screamed version of her name had given Shelby some purpose and a way to busy her racing thoughts in something practical and useful and so very different than the reason of why God had been punishing her like this. Of course, He had judge a retreat being a foul call – repenting didn’t come in the form of yoga under palm trees and the sound of corny country songs in her headphones, did it now?

It didn’t.

Of course, it fucking didn’t.

This scenery and helpless feeling seemed more fitting than a pottery lesson.

Fucking fuck.

At that moment, Shelby had almost screamed the curse words and then Martha had miserably groaned in pain and snapped the blonde out of it again.

_Start repenting, child, start mending your fucking sins._

But, shit, man. Fucking shit.

_“If God brought us into it, God will bring us through it”._

Eight deadpanning stares.

For another hellish second, Shelby had almost been able to hear damned crickets in the silence of her words.

_Jesus Christ, your Father wasn’t gonna make it easy, huh?_

After Jeanette had been breathing again and sitting on the foot of a stone with a lifeless expression on her face, and after Leah had managed to crawl closer to them and also take a seat with the group and Dottie had found her phone, emotionlessly covering it up with sand – the nature of the girls around her started to take shape and claim a place in Shelby’s mind. Like those bluest of eyes she had ever seen. And Martha’s kindness. Rachel’s ghost of a smile that she seemed to viciously fight herself and Nora’s untamed one. Fatin’s absolutely entrancing figures and narrow angles. And Dottie’s familiar face and comforting memories from a childhood so long ago, when life had been so simple and almost _free_.

The unintentional categorization had brought in the whispers that had sounded a lot like Dave Goodkind.

Shelby had needed to get out of there and the jungle had beamed back at her with something like mischief.

 _“So water run?” she_ _had_ _cleared her throat, praying to God one of those girls would agree to come with her. The running and saltwater had still clanged on her tongue and mouth and throat and she had needed a few long gulps of the clear liquid to ease the taste and rather drilling headache._

_“Yeah, let’s go”, Rachel had nodded once, helping her up on tired feet with warm hands and dominant air._

Splitting up didn’t seem like a good idea, but Rachel was already walking away from her before Shelby laid down her arguing points. She watched her go for a moment, before turning her head toward the tree line, the darkening shade of the trees falling like an invisible curtain. For a moment, Shelby stared at the jungle and the jungle stared back at her, daring her to approach if she had the guts.

Truth be told, underneath the whole pageant bravado and princess mask, Shelby had the guts.

For a moment, her knuckles hurt as a reminder of the time she had punched Andrew straight in the nose and had landed the final nail in her coffin. Dave Goodkind hadn’t needed another reason to set up the Hawaii retreat as the last chance before a wholesome trip by Kyle’s side all the way to therapy.

Still, apparently, Dave Goodkind was only a man and couldn’t have a say in God’s plan, despite his loyalty to Him. No Hawaii retreat for Shelby it was.

She was so tired.

Fuck.

The damned jungle seemed to laugh at her – glorious in its natural aura and as confident in itself as Shelby would never be. Judgmental much?

She stubbornly picked up the trail to the tree line. She didn’t really expected to go too far in the woods, but as soon as she stepped under the thick shade of the leaves and the cooler air of the woods wrapped around her, something heavy shifted off of her shoulders.

Here, she could breathe for a moment.

The ground was covered with twigs and branches and dry leaves. Green moss wrapped around the base of the trees, roots peeking out between the soft layers of grass and wild sedges. Trees incredibly tall above her head, their branches hang low and twisted with the wide bushes. Rays of sunlight broke through the leaves, making patterns on the uneven tree barks and the stones laying around on the bumpy ground. The scent of flowers hovered around almost too perspicuous. The dry wind brought the smell of saltwater and wet sand from the close beach, the dirt mixing softly with the rest of the scents. As for the sounds, the wind brushed against the twisting plants and leaves and the quiet shuffle wrapped effortlessly with the quiet chipping of the unseeing birds living in the tall trees.

Shelby took a moment to realize she stood unmoving in the middle of the woods, tired eyes closed and clothes drying on her body, senses overtaken by the nature around her.

And so when a twig snapped, Shelby’s eyes snapped open and her head turned toward the sound right away, only for her gaze to zero in the very obvious – _very real_ shape of a person, staring right back at her with a dump look on their face, as if they could _believe_ what they were seeing in front of them either.

Then a couple of things happened in a few seconds, but to Shelby, it felt quite longer than that.

Summary of her life at that point.

One, the person was very clearly female – long brunette hair falling in a tamed mess around feminine face angles and spilling down lean shoulders. Unintentionally, green eyes trailed lower, following the long line of the girl’s neck, to drop on prominent collar bones and further down to the soft line of her cleavage, which hid right behind a worn out piece of red cloth that looked more like a crop top than a shirt. Either way, it left the girl’s flat stomach in clear view, Shelby’s gaze uselessly catching at the thick corners of half hidden tattoos. And _further_ down, the natural trail of abdomen muscles narrowed down between a pair of sharp hip bones to… to be stopped by a loose waistband of a pair of shorts, that left uncovered the equally muscular legs.

Cold sweat broke out at the sight and maybe she needed to sit down for a bit.

_Jesus Christ, what the fuck._

_What the fuck?!_

Shelby felt her stomach dropping in an actual freefall – _at this point she would fucking know the feeling first hand_ – because, _dear Lord,_ this girl was absolutely _beautiful_ and on top of not being blind or something, Shelby’s recent... issues were, huh, kind of deeper in this moment of her life and, well,

_Holy Mary..._

This woman - _girl_ \- in front of her couldn’t be real.

Second thing, Shelby noticed the way the girl’s dark brown skin was tattooed in delicate patterns and tribal designs that made Shelby’s throat just a bit drier upon sight. They covered a shoulder, trailing its round curve with detailed circular shapes, and then spilled down the arm in a sleeve of color and shape. In the exact same nature of design, an impressive – much thinner and more delicate tattoo rested over the opposite ribcage, the lines dipping down the side of the girl’s waist to abruptly hide under the waistband as well, only to reappear under the end of the shorts, marking her upper thigh and all the way to the side of the leg’s knee.

The third thing Shelby noticed was the way the girl’s lips parted in something like clear shock, brown eyes widening with unmistakably surprise at seeing Shelby standing there and looking back just as shocked. She didn’t look any older than Shelby herself, but that could be the only common characteristic found between them at this moment. The girl was muscled and well fed and fucking tiny, but there was an aura around her, and it felt like Shelby was looking at another part of the tropical jungle around them. She clicked _with_ the wild trees and colors like the last piece of a puzzle clicked in the final place left. There was dirt and a layer of grime smeared across the sun kissed skin, but it didn’t feel wrong or in need to be wiped off.

They simply stood frozen and _stared_ and the girl seemed to recover sooner than the blonde, because the dark brown eyes blinked, the shoulders pulled back and then an actual _snarl_ appeared across the breathtaking face, the anger flashing in the brown eyes being as clear as the tattoos covering the rest of her body.

It shook Shelby out of her trace and she noticed a few more things.

There was a long spear grasped in one fist, the end of it made of stone, but looking pretty much capable of slicing through Shelby if it judged so. A wooden bow and a quiver full of arrows were tied on her back. Something that looked like a knife holster was also tied on her waist. The girl stood on bare feet – completely unbothered by the sharpness of the ground. Brunette hair was pulled back in complex braids.

A pair of incredibly sharp, _inhuman_ , ears appeared between the brunette strands of hair.

And in the most faithful kind of speaking and with no disrespect to God and His creations, _holy fucking shit._

If Shelby thought she’d been shocked before, then nothing could really describe the snapping feeling coursing through her whole body as a heavy shudder now.

“I, huh…”

At the sound of her useless voice, the girl jolted and the scowl deepened into something dangerous. It was followed by the arm holding the spear raising and the small body curling inwards and closer to the ground in an almost animal like movement, reminding Shelby of a snake and the spear kept raising and – oh, oh, okay, _no way they were gonna go there!_

“Wait, _wait”,_ Shelby chocked on her words, hands lifting in a defensive position, palms open and out as if the girl was holding a gun instead of this… equally lethal looking spear.

The girl seemed to still at the sound of trembling words, eyes narrowing and Shelby didn’t even _know_ if she could understand English, but she kept begging.

She was begging for her life after their plane crashed in the open ocean, _d_ _ear fucking God,_ and, okay, not a deserted island then - quite the fucking opposite in fact - it surely seemed lived in by... by...

What _the actual fuck_ was _this girl?_

“We… we are not here to hurt anybody, please, our… our plane crashed into the ocean and we… we had to s-swim over here and… and we don’t know what to… please, just, we are not here to hurt anyone”.

The girl remained frozen, not giving any kind of clue that she understood a word.

Shelby, of course, kept talking because as long as she wasn’t throwing that spear that was good, that was _great_ , _absolutely marvelous_. “Is… is there anyone else here? Maybe your… your family or… I don’t know, we thought we were alone here and, we are looking for some w-water for – hey, hey, _hey_ , _wait_ , where are you _going_?!”

It was the same feeling of panic when the first shudder had travelled through the plane. The same feeling of _numbing panic_ , when she had crashed on saltwater, pain snapping through her whole body and knocking out her breaths. The girl was slowly slipping back between the trees, never lowering her arm or uncurling her body into something less defensive, but something in her brown eyes had changed and if she was someone living in this island, then Shelby and the rest of the girls on that beach needed her fucking help to survive until rescue came for them.

But when Shelby blinked again, the girl had disappeared in the forest like a shadow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and tell me what you thought.
> 
> ps. our dear Jeanette will still actually die, I'm so sorry :/
> 
> Update, I guess this is going to continue after all. And I fixed the messy writing a bit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did i get drunk on wine to write the first part? Yes.
> 
> Did i use my depressive mood of the day to write the second part? Also yes.
> 
> Did it came out messy again? Fuck yes, it did.
> 
> Despite those facts, i wish you happy reading, folks!
> 
> Trigger warning; alcohol
> 
> Also, this could be seen as my critique of Christianity and my personal soft spot for Nature. I'm an atheist, so I'm trying my best here with the spiritual concept, but I swear I'm trying.

Shit.

Absolute shit.

That was Shelby’s life.

Because, of course, she was the one to see an inhuman creature with inhuman ears and inhuman tattoos and – and – and just, fucking shit, man, this was the current situation. From the moment the girl disappeared, she knew no one would believe her.

When Shelby had stumbled back on the beach, green eyes blew wide, bloody scrapes along the length of her arms and legs, her breathing coming out in heavy pants, she’d found the group of girls in the middle of an argument. The confession of seeing something unexplainable was hard enough, and the knowledge that an inhuman creature lurked somewhere in that jungle kept pressing on Shelby’s lungs like a brick, but as soon as she had _stumbled_ _back on the beach_ and the group, Shelby had realized this wasn’t exactly the time to open the conversation.

Rachel had returned as well and had been yelling at her sister and Martha had been talking to Dottie with tearful eyes and Fatin had been yelling at Dottie’s unresponsive phone and – What was she going to say?

_Hey, guys, I saw an elf in the motherfucking jungle!?_

Like. _Fuck._

And then, right after, Shelby had taken in a breath near Nora and Dottie, Jeanette had _died_ on the sand, looking so small and her chest unmoving and her face slowly losing its color and – and this was the second dead body Shelby had ever seen in her life and Becca… Becca had been so… she had…

They had buried Jeanette in a shallow grave of sand – _more like in a hole in the ground_ – and Shelby had already thrown up once by the time they covered the girl’s body with sand and dry seaweed and a couple of plants from the nearby clearing, to make up for the lack of flowers. It had felt so _wrong,_ even when Shelby had repeated a couple of words she’d heard once in a memorial, even when Leah had sang a P!nk song, claiming Jeanette had liked P!nk.

Kudos to Jeanette. And P!nk

So they had sung the song and buried the girl with their own bare hands and the night was so fucking _cold_ at this point. The gorgeous moon tried to make up for the darkness, offering a soft glow of light to planet Earth, and helping them track back to their small pile of suitcases, shoulders curled down and eyes fleeing away as soon as they made contact with another gaze. In the background, the dark ocean gently lapped at the sand, managing to fill the awkward silence between the remaining seven girls, and after a few moments of simply listening to the waves, Shelby found her shoulders unlocking softly, a rush of dull headache knocking against her forehead and behind her eyes.

Shelby was so tired and it had only been a couple of hours ever since their plane freefell from the sky and it already felt like a week.

“I need a damn pack of cigarettes”, Dottie grunted as soon as she leaned back and let their fire breathe and six more bodies shuffled closer to the flames, letting the warmth lick through their skin and ease the trembling coldness from their muscles. The dryness was still stuck in Shelby’s throat and every heavy gulp of saliva made it worse. Diet Coca Cola was as shit as Shelby remembered, but, it did ease some of the thirst clinching to her mouth.

Dottie spread out mini bottles of various brands to _“take the edge off_ ” and no one would deny that this was indeed awkward, and any other time, in any other universe, Shelby would have suggested an icebreaker or something, just to ease the tension of this… huh… near death experience they had gone through together and had left behind some deep helplessness and a depressive weight in every single one of them.

She would have suggested it and it might have worked, because it’d be better than this _silence,_ but her mind kept racing with images of smooth brown skin covered with so _many_ detailed tattoos, that surely held some kind of story and were _too_ detailed and vivid to have been a product of Shelby’s imagination. She didn’t even think she’d hit her head that hard, but on the other hand, she _had_ freefallen from a motherfucking airplane and gone through many hours without water. Not to mention the path of sin ( _more like fair responses to fucking traumatic experiences starting with the death of her best fucking friend, like fuck you Dad_ ) that had landed her in that airplane seat all the way from Texas.

But then again… _hallucinating elves?_

Shelby’s brain wasn’t _that_ fucked up, she was damn sure of it.

_Alcohol, alcohol, in my hand, how do I say, I saw an elf?_

Okay.

She was losing her mind.

God chose to punish her by taking away her sanity.

Great.

A still more fitting way of repenting than a pottery lesson though.

She wanted to curl into a ball and sob the exhaustion out of her brain, but someone was indeed suggesting some drinking game now and Shelby’s green eyes were blinking away the fog that had settled over them and _apparently_ , Dottie had been talking to _her_ about suggesting the drinking game, because apparently Shelby had drowned half of the mini bottle in her hand and she kept blinking and thinking about brown skin and it…

Alcohol gave some courage.

“I’m going to tell you something now”, Shelby took in a deep breath and six pairs of eyes flickered over to her again after the _great_ lack of respond to Dot’s efforts, and – okay, this was difficult. “I promise I am not crazy”.

“Great start, Shelby, real nice”, Dottie’s face fell and Shelby nervously chuckled, before gulping down a few more gulps of, huh… _gin? What the hell was she drinking anyway?_

It didn’t matter.

“We, huh, we might not…” _okay, her voice was an octave higher than normal_ “…might not be alone out here”.

“What?!” Rachel was on her feet and towering over Shelby and both Fatin and Leah’s eyes had widened like _three_ times their normal size and Dottie’s mini glass of alcohol was dropped on the sand and both, Martha and Nora had a hopeful look in their eyes, which Shelby was _very prepared_ to send away with a couple of explanatory words.

“T-There is… I met someone in the forest”, Shelby was saying and Rachel was yelling and Fatin was also on her feet and _screaming_ while bouncing around the fire and waving a bandana above her head in celebration to the news and Shelby thought convention therapy would have been easier than this because –

–because, well.

“Someone _not_ human”.

Fatin stumbled over her own dancing feet and if it wasn’t for Leah’s arms snapping out to drag her back with enough force to make her trip straight on the other girl’s lap, Fatin would have fallen face first in their bonfire.

Seemed like Leah’s lap was an excellent place to fall on. Shelby would have chosen it over any kind of flames and Fatin didn’t seem hurt to have landed there herself. Good for her.

_“What the fuck, Shelby?”_

“Listen –“

“Did your God make an appearance, is that what you are saying?!”

_Not a cool comment, but this wasn’t the time to comment on the comment._

But, _fuck Rachel Reid._ That wasn’t nice.

“This is bullshit, man, this is just _bullshit_ ”.

“ _Listen to me –_ “

“Fuck you, dude, not cool, _not cool!_ ”

Shelby breathed out and sent a prayer up above to the Big Guy and seemed like He actually _listened_ for once, because an extra voice spoke up then and everyone was jerking up in shock and _fear_ and – and Fatin was _screaming_ again, but the sound was a terrified one and _the elf_ was grimacing in the faint light of the bonfire and the moon. She wore the same pieces of clothing Shelby had seen her in earlier today, red fabric around her chest, a _short_ pair of shorts, braids in place and tattoos uncovered and covering some very captivating inches of skin and –

 _Jesus Christ,_ Jesus Christ, _get a hold of your Father’s tests, will you, please?!_

The… creature… sent a _bag_ of something flying on their feet, the fabric of the handmade bag opening upon contact with the ground and letting show a pile of… of… _Used tissues_? Small, sealed, plastic packs full of nuts. Yellow life vests. A plastic, sealed pack full of… pill boxes? Empty, plastic water bottles. A ruined, thick book. Wet, nylon bags. An actual pile of plastic straws.

It all spilled out on their feet and the look on the elf’s face was disapproving beyond fucking Hell.

_What the fuck?_

The motherfucking elf – _they were standing in front of an actual elf_ – glared at them, a _familiar_ spear in one hand and the other fist curling around the handle of something that looked like a short sword, strapped to her waist.

“You spread your garbage everywhere on this beach”, the elf deadpanned in perfect English and – and –

 _W_ ow, the voice was just _deep_ and _hoarse_ , the tone raspy in a way that sent heat all the way through Shelby’s body and no whispering words of Dave Goodkind could get this warmth to soften. _Jesus._ Jesus, shit, she needed to calm down.

“Yep, that’s the one I met”, she mumbled and on top of Leah, Fatin started screaming again, making all of them jerk in shock, the elf’s eyebrows snapping up. Shelby drowned the mini bottle of gin in a few gulps, ignoring the screaming girl that Dottie looked very close to punching straight in the nose.

“What the fuck?” Rachel spat out uselessly and the creature frowned. “What the _fuck_?”

Shelby met the elf’s brown eyes in the darkness.

_Cause, really, both of them could have handled this better, right?_

Right.

Dot was on her feet and looking ready to start screaming herself. “ _W-Who_ are you?”

The elf scowled and straightened her back, shoulders uncurling slightly. “You are trespassing”.

Without missing a beat, Rachel shook her head and stated; “No, fuck you. Our plane fucking crashed in the fucking ocean. We ain’t trespassing shit”.

“This is my home, so according to _your_ laws, you kind of are”.

“ _No_ , fuck you”, Rachel repeated, and _both_ Shelby and Nora were reaching out, grasping one arm each, pulling the group’s dear athlete the fuck back, because _, no,_ they needed this person’s _fucking help_.

Dottie cleared her throat and took a step closer, shoes kicking on the trash spilled on the dry sand and making the dark eyes narrow even more. “You, huh, you live here?”

“Yes”.

“Do you have a phone?”

“…No”.

“ _Why the_ fuck _not?_ ”

“ _Shut up, Rach_ ” and “ _Rachel Reid, I swear to the Lord, I will literally kill you_ ”.

“Isn’t that a sin?”

Shelby scoffed because the athlete did choose to fight _every_ single _battle_ and _at the same time_.

“One more sinful act won’t hurt much more at this point”, the blonde mumbled to the girl and the weak threat actually seemed to work a little, because Rachel did look over at her for a second, and Dottie and Martha were able to step in the conversation and save the seven of them from this fate.

“O _kay_ , we need fucking help here, man”, Dottie stepped closer to the elf, and the elf stepped back, bare feet almost touching the line of the crushing, foaming, gentle waves of the ocean.

“I am not a man”.

Dot seemed at lost here and so did everyone else and, _fuck_ , this was a complete mess.

_And, yeah, definitely not a man._

_But still good to have that confirmed._

_No. Wait -_

Shelby reached down and took a hold of Leah’s own, forgotten, mini bottle of alcohol, drinking the liquid as if it was water and trying to muffle the coughs caused by the burn. The elf’s eyes snapped on her and narrowed again and, _dea_ r G _od, this was a complete_ mess.

She almost sat down on the sand – defeated and exhausted.

She didn’t.

Not yet, at least.

“We… we need serious help”, Dottie tried again and, when she stepped closer again, the girl didn’t pull back. “There is rescue coming, for sure, but until they find us, we… we need _water_ and food and shelter and we have none of these things and if you’re… you’re living here you can help, right?”

Toni scowled and she didn’t look like she wanted to offer some help. _Not nice._ Shelby thought if their first encounter she’d said something offensive, but even then, the elf had lifted that spear first, so… huh… maybe it wasn’t them doing something wrong.

“W-what’s your name?”

In the darkness, the pointy ear twisted and then; “Toni”.

“W-What?” Shelby choked around a mouthful of alcohol and the elf looked over at her again – any hint of kindness evaporated from her expression, replacing the calm look with something like uncomfortable, boiling rage.

“My name is Toni”, she softly rasped, before taking another step back and this time, the next crashing wave of water wrapped straight around the bare ankles for a moment.

“Toni, cool, cool name”, Dottie kept nodded and five pairs of eyes kept snapping between the two of them as if they were watching a tennis match. “Huh, you… you live in a village here?”

“No”.

“No? So, no f-family?”

“No”.

“You live here alone?”

The elf’s – _Toni’s_ – eyes narrowed again and something tightened in her face, both sides pulling and _locking_ tightly and, oh, she was clenching her jaw incredibly hard and making the lean face muscles constrict and stretch out in four mirroring lines in all the right places and –

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, nope, no going there, Shelbs. The Lord will fucking know._ Shelby _had to_ get another gulp of alcohol in, just to get rid of the racing beating of her fucking heart.

“I’m not alone?”

“W-Who are you living with?”

“The animals”.

“A-Animals?” Dot’s eyes widened just slightly in disbelief.

Martha was whispering in awe; “Oh, this sounds nice”.

And…

It did the trick.

Martha cracked the fucking code, God bless her!

Martha pushed straight through the face of stone.

In moments, Toni’s eyes softened impossibly fast, shoulder blades unlocking and loosening some tension, fist just slightly easing its hold on the motherfucking spear and if Shelby was Fatin, she’d get into a celebratory dance around the bonfire at the sight. She sighed a trapped breath and Nora’s head landing on Shelby’s shoulder for a moment – in equal, utter relief to see the island only resident relax just a bit since appearing out of nowhere and yelling for no reason.

Okay, Toni hadn’t been yelling, but it had felt like yelling.

Martha took another step closer and stood by Dot’s side and Toni didn’t backtrack again, brown eyes shifting more calmly over the seven girls standing around the burning fire. The faint moonlight hit the water behind Toni in a way that darkened most of the creature’s silhouette. It let the dancing flames illuminate the beautiful face and smooth skin, and Shelby allowed her eyes take in the girl for a second time.

Toni didn’t look different in the scenery of the beach, quite the opposite, just like between the thick trees and plants of the jungle, Toni stood in the shallow saltwater with utter familiarization of her surroundings. The spear had been lowered and the tip was buried in the wet sand, the foaming water kept gently lapping at the bare feet and ankles, as if the sea was a creature of its own and greeting Toni back close. Right behind her, the moon seemed just a bit brighter, and around them, the wind had toned down into something steadier, gently brushing back some loose waves of brunette braided hair.

The air smelled less like smoke and burning wood and more like wet soil and clear water.

“We really need help, Toni”, Martha gulped and the elf seemed to soften even more, something flashing behind brown eyes as they looked at Martha. “Drinkable water, food, we… we need help until they come for us”.

Something like melancholy.

“Get some sleep by the fire”, Toni rasped, “the sunlight will wake you up early. I will bring you some water”.

Shelby felt a weight lifting away from her shoulders at the quiet words, and next to her, Leah was breathlessly laughing with a crooked grin on her face. For another moment, Toni simply stared at them, before nodding once and starting to walk away, along the water line and –

Fatin was on her feet and coming closer, “Hey, you… you have a house here?”

Toni stiffened, glancing over at the girl in the fluffy pink jacket. “Not the kind you want”, she stated quietly and then the wind was making the flames flicker violently, the fire’s light thinning and the night’s darkness spreading just a bit more and then, Toni was gone from sight again.

-

Shelby couldn’t sleep; the alcohol and exhaustion from the swim and hike should have been able to help in that department, but as soon as the last of the girls passed out on the sand and the silence settle over the beach, Shelby couldn’t even lay down. Her throat was dry and tight from the lack of water, stomach only now starting to growl due to the hunger and even with Fatin’s jacket, the cold still managed to bite through and keep her mind on alert. And the alcohol was like… in mini bottles and, these last months of Shelby’s life hadn’t been filled with mini bottles, had they now?

The late nights had been the new normal those last couple of months. Unable to fall asleep before the clock stroke 3am, unable to keep sleeping after the clock stroke 7am. And surely, the time here on the island couldn’t be much later than 11pm, considering how the sun had set behind the horizon only a couple of hours ago.

And, well, Shelby closed her eyes for a moment, feeling a knot of rope tightening around her lungs and squeezing, her green eyes darting off to the side and towards the way they had buried Jeanette. The thought coupled with the chilly night air, making a heavy shudder crushed through the blonde’s body and, yeah, there was no way she would be getting any sleep if she didn’t pass out completely from like… overwhelming physical exhaustion.

For those reasons, Shelby was the only one awake when the sound of gentle shuffling on the sand mixed with the rhythmic crushing sound of the waves a few steps away.

Her green eyes met the brown ones and Toni blinked, before shuffling closer with a… a wooden bucket in her hold and quietly settled it by Shelby’s side. At the sight of clean water inside, the blonde’s throat felt just a bit drier and her eyes flickered up at Toni with something close to thankful awe, before she duck right in, hands cupping around the cool water and bringing it up to her mouth. She didn’t even realized the sighing huff of breath that broke out of her mouth as the liquid eased _everything_ that had been burning inside her skull and throat.

“I mean, there is a cup inside the bucket, but hands still work”, the raspy voice stated and the tone had a ring of clear amusement in it.

Shelby looked up at the girl hovering close by, lifting an eyebrow and blessing the night for the thick darkness that managed to hide the embarrassed flush heating up her face.

The elf’s eyebrows frowned, head tilting to the side for a moment, as if she was searching something in Shelby’s face, only for the look to be wiped away the next second. Brown eyes flickered down the path leading to Jeanette’s grave and Shelby felt her shoulders dropping slightly, the thoughts evaporating.

There were so many things Shelby could ask. Like, _what_ was Toni? She looked like human, but the ears and the just too perfect designs of her tattoos stood out in a way that was so obviously not human. The way shadows seemed to suck her body out of view in _seconds_.

Comprehending the impossible nature of inhuman beings walking the earth, then the questions just kept piling up, because… because…

Fuck, she hated the way of thinking at times like these, but the Bible didn’t fucking say anything about tiny creatures with pointy ears and, as much as Martha kept mumbling about Santa Clause’s factory of elves being portrayed as workers, Shelby had her doubts.

But then again, if elves were a thing after all, then what stopped Santa Clause from existing as well?!

She was losing her mind. End of story.

“Your head is going to be fried by the thoughts”, the creature mumbled and to Shelby’s utter surprise, she took a seat close to the blonde, keeping the bucket of water between them. Just to make those thoughts deepen, a pointy ear twisting slightly.

“W-What are you?” Shelby whispered, unable to look away, but she wasn’t scared of the creature next to her. The panic had happened after the hike and the alcohol numbed the anxiety with little effort.

Brown eyes flickered over for a split second, before darting back to the dark horizon and losing themselves in the mass of black. Or maybe, Toni had the ability of better eyesight and maybe night vision? Shelby couldn’t know unless she asked.

“Your people have called us spirits for centuries”.

“M-my people?”

“More like your kind”.

“Kind?”

“Humans”.

“Oh”.

The brown eyes flickered over again, but they held uncomfortable mischief this time.

“So, you… you are not human?”

“No”.

“But, you speak English”.

It made Toni huff out something like soundless laughter and the brown eyes glimmered in the light of the flames and the moon and something like a smile tugged at the corner of the elf’s mouth. “I speak every language there is”.

“ _Oh._ You… You do?!”

“I have had enough time to learn them”.

Shelby couldn’t close her mouth and another mini bottle of gin would be fucking helpful at this point. The arrogant look in the brown eyes was causing some very familiar heat deep inside Shelby’s chest and to… and, _okay._

Here was Dave Goodkind’s voice to smack the urges with a pink flyer with printed palm trees.

_About time you made an appearance, Daddy._

“That’s, huh, impressive”.

“Thank you”, Toni openly smirked now and, _yeah, another mini was going to be needed._

At least, she wasn’t screaming. Which was good.

“You said you are a spirit, what… what does that mean?”

Toni seemed visibly uncomfortable now, hands digging into the sand in front of her crossed legs. She had changed clothes; putting on some longer pants stuffed in leather boots of thick animal skin, the red cloth being replaced by a loose, sleeveless shirt made of animal leather and handmade trimmed rope. It was the most covered Shelby had seen her and… and it finally felt like _her mind could fucking work again, like, Jesus Christ…_

“Your friend is going to be alright”, Toni rasped out instead of answering and Shelby followed her gaze to the side, back to the direction of Jeanette’s grave. The thought managed to grasp Shelby’s throat again, grief clawing its way down her chest and she didn’t know what Toni knew of the concept of death and Heaven, but, huh… “She has already started the travel”.

“T-Travel? To Heaven?” Toni snorted a dismissing sound that made Shelby lean back in surprise. “No Heaven?” she dared to ask, dreading the answer, because… because, well, the Big Guy didn’t have a history of appearing in front of people in some form, and so could be said about elves, but – _huh_ – here Shelby was talking _with_ one, instead of talking _to_ one and getting no visible answer back.

And faith was… was enough to cover the blank spot of communication with the Lord, but, at some points…

Toni was looking at her weird again. “I meant the travel to another body”, she said quietly, obviously trying not to spook Shelby, but not exactly doing a good job.

“W-What do you…?”

The elf – _spirit_ – turned her head towards her and the brown eyes suddenly looked so deep and _old_ and full of something like knowledge and glowing light. It made Shelby’s breaths catch somewhere in her throat as a hiccup and, _oh my God,_ she was talking with something _inhuman_ , and she wasn’t losing her mind. She was too tired to lose her mind at the moment. Maybe in the morning.

“Reincarnation”, the elf whispered with a solid nod. “She will be okay”.

Shelby blinked back at this… this was… _Okay, maybe sooner than the morning._

“ _Reincarnation_?”

“From what I can sense, her spirit will go to the element of the air and be rebirthed there”.

“Rebirth as…”

“I don’t know that, maybe as a bird, maybe something as simple as wind”, Toni said like this was a perfectly normal conversation to have with someone. She didn’t seem to feel the nervous energy blowing off of Shelby as more and more words came out of the elf’s mouth.

“You… _What_ are you?”

Brown eyes snapped on Shelby and a pointy ear twisted _again_ and really, the snapping movement only screamed annoyance at this point. The darkness wasn’t enough to hide the sudden, angered flames that sparked up inside the brown orbs.

Toni quietly scoffed again.

“Your kind really has erased us, huh?”

“I don’t know what that means”.

It didn’t seem to help and the annoyance deepened just slightly.

“It doesn’t matter”, Toni quietly whispered and then, her voice rose a bit again. “Until your people come to take you back to the mainland, you should build a shelter away from the beach. The morning sun will burn you”.

Shelby shrugged and let her eyes travel to the six girls sleeping around the fire. “Rescue will be here like, tomorrow”.

“How do you know?”

“I… I don’t”.

Toni lifted an eyebrow. “Well, you cannot know the future. It will be safer to have a roof over your heads, there is also a storm coming in a few days”.

“H-How do _you_ know?”

“I can sense it”.

“Like… a sixth sense?”

“No, it doesn’t work like this”.

 _Mini bottles, mini bottles, Shelby thought she had seen Martha not drinking much of her own._ “Because you ain’t human”, Shelby mumbled and let a hand rub at her tired eyes, exhaustion starting to crawl up to her brain, making her head heavy.

Toni smiled softly and ducked her head, before starting to shift in a standing position and making Shelby jerk on her feet as well, green eyes blown wide. Toni tensed at the movement, slowly pulling back like a nervous dog and Shelby cleared her throat, lifting her hands awkwardly to show that everything was fine.

 _And_ , that was more awkward. “Where are you going?”

“I also need to sleep”, the elf – _spirit_ – stated, lifting an eyebrow and carefully patting the sand off of the palms of her hands. “But, I can take you to the closest waterfalls tomorrow so you can have clear water whenever”.

“Oh, oh, yeah, that… that would be great actually”.

Toni nodded slowly, frowning a bit and then ducking her head to walk away.

Shelby kept staring motionless until Rachel woke up and cursed her out for being creepy as all fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point there are going to be edits through the whole body of this chapter.
> 
> RIP dear Jeanette i am so sorry for killing you with no apparent reason.
> 
> ps. Shelby gay panics a lot and she knows.
> 
> ps.2. Toni is the cause of a lot of that gay panic. Shelby knows that too.
> 
> ps.3. Shelby isn't an alcoholic, she just drinks a lot lately.
> 
> ps.4. I'm not used to writing light storylines, so I'm asking once again to excuse this mess of a story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in the same 24 hours? Don't get used to it, kids, it won't be happening soon again.
> 
> Also, this is a small one, but it felt too good and complete for me not to post it.
> 
> Happy reading.

petrichor [ pet-ri-kawr ]

noun

  1. a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground.



“Oh, _hell no!_ ”

Shelby had never seen Fatin angry.

Angry felt like an understatement though and, if it was anyone else, Shelby would make a joke about steam coming out of her ears, but this was Fatin and, _apparently_ , an angry Fatin did not seem like someone who took any kind of joke when experiencing this emotional spectrum. She was actually _seething_ , looking very close to launching herself at Toni and strangling the smaller creature.

Who stood with dark brown eyes that sparkled an equally threatening glimmer of danger, despite the menacing amusement in her smirk.

Shelby was sure Fatin was going to kill the elf, which brought the question, could Toni actually be killed?

 _No idea_. It wasn’t really a question Shelby wanted Fatin to answer by active experimental methods, and so Shelby nudged Dot to _do something,_ but Dottie didn’t move from her frozen spot on the jungle’s moss covered ground, looking as shocked as the rest of them at seeing Fatin’s body locking up into something _hazardously still._

“I warned you”, Toni growled out and maybe Shelby should have nudged _Martha_ to do something. “Twice”.

The flames in Fatin’s darkening eyes seemed to burst out into explosive waves of lava and she pressed closer to the smaller creature in front of them, hands tightening in fists and thick, white urate slowly dripping further down her forehead. Shelby felt her stomach tightening and her eyes flickered up to the – _rather pleased_ – parrot that quietly bobbed up and down on the branch above Fatin’s head, the bird dark eyes looking arrogant, if that was even possible.

Next to her, Leah’s breath hitched when the white substance - _bird shit, it was fucking bird shit -_ dripped further down the side of Fatin’s face, but the group’s dear musician didn’t seem to notice in her anger.

Toni straightened her back, but her hands didn’t reach for the short sword tied to her waist.

_Thank God._

Fatin’s snarl deepened as her lips curled back and started to move to deliver an answer, and, okay, no one was going to step in before this actually switched into a physical fight. Shelby sent a prayer up above and, as soon as she was taking the damned step in front of Fatin, Toni’s eyes were snapping on her own with something like distress. They had been doing that a lot lately and Shelby couldn’t really understand _why_ Toni seemed so bothered by her presence when she did _literally nothing._

But at this point, having the uncomfortable eyes on her, rather than on Fatin, was better.

“Let’s all take a deep breath”, Shelby gulped and Fatin was actually growling now and Toni’s eyes were narrowing again and Martha and Leah and Dot were stepping in as well after the first sight of action. She sent another thankful prayer – _she even tilted her eyes up on the clear blue skies_ – and Toni was shuddering, stepping away from the human cluster, with a last glare at Fatin.

“Do not touch the trees again”, she mumbled with clear frustration, as if they hadn’t gotten it by now.

 _No touching the trees with nail polish or anything else_ not _considered a product of Mother Nature. Got it._

It went into the mental list of things they _weren’t allowed to do_ on this motherfucking island. No leaving trash on the sand and water, cleaning after using the bathroom, stuffing the garbage in a suitcase to take with them when rescue came. No fire being taken past the tree line. No hunting for pleasure (as if they had time for that), no hunting the fish and the land animals and the birds for no life-or-death reasons. Being careful where to step because there were turtle nests laying in the sand and someone had already stepped onto one – Toni had taken an extra day to show up and get them to the waterfall after that, sending both Rachel and Leah in a stupid meltdown about the seven of them imagining the whole thing.

On top of that list rested with big, bold letter the order; _No painting on the trees to make any kind of path._ In general, really, no touching the trees. Cutting them down was also out of the question; shelter was going to be built by the logs already laying on the ground and drying on the sand.

Toni was protective of the trees.

 _“I can't_ believe... _The goddmned goblin_ _made a parrot take_ a shit _on me”._

_“…”_

Yeah.

 _Aggressively_ protective of the trees.

As the tension evaporated, Shelby tried to ignore Fatin’s seething repeated words, and Rachel’s muffled chuckles at their host’s controversial actions, and Martha’s quiet rant about them actually landing in Toni’s home and messing up the creature’s routine rather violently and how they needed to be thankful the elf hadn’t sent them away…

Away to… where? The ocean?

Like… Toni _did_ seem annoyed and irritated about the presence of seven humans in the island’s beach, but the spirit hadn’t come forward heartless to the point of throwing them back into the water to drown. Because that was what was going to happen. They’d drown right at the next hour. If not, sharks were a thing.

Shelby was indeed thankful then.

Fatin wasn’t that flexible. “She is a bully”.

Leah was trying though. “She isn’t even human, Fatin”.

“I can hear you!” Toni cleared her throat without looking back and it seemed like Fatin let out another growl.

“ _Good_ , I was just saying how you should go _fuck_ yourself!”

“ _Fatin!_ ”

“ _What?!_ She made a bird shit on me! I have every right!”

Toni rolled her eyes and glanced at them behind her shoulder. She shrugged and quietly stated; “I suggested it. The parrot did whatever it wanted to do with the given facts”.

Rachel heard and tried to cover her laugh with muffled coughs. Each frustrated comment from Toni’s mouth seemed to earn her some of the athlete’s dumb respect. Shelby simply forced a smile at the elf and tiredly sighed out a breath.

Day three on this island. It felt like a year had passed.

Toni had appeared on the beach a few hours after they had all woken up, finding their little group in the middle of various activities. Shelby had been helping Dot scout the area for any more suitcases or pieces of their plane that the water might have spitted out. By the shade of the bluff, Fatin and Martha had been sunbathing quietly – almost asleep due to the boredom, the trauma of the situation toned down by the intense hunger that clawed at their stomachs. Rachel and Leah hd been getting ready for a hike on top of the island’s tallest peak and maybe finding some proof that the elf had indeed existed out of their heads (Shelby had wordlessly pointed at the bucket of water with a lifted eyebrow and Rachel had ignored the very obvious object that hadn’t materialized out of empty air. Nora had met Shelby’s rolling eyes with a look of understanding and a shrug, telling her that Rachel needed the actual elf in front of them at all times to calm down).

As if she had heard – _maybe she_ _had_ _actually had_ – Toni had appeared behind a bluff with another bag of trash in her hold and an intense glare, pointy ears twisting more than normal, dark tattoos looking darker under the direct rays of sunlight. The long leggings of animal skin and fur and the tight boots were still on, the loose jerkin leaving bare her arms and collarbones. They had all paused at the sight of the elf in the clear light – no tree shades or the night’s darkness hiding any part of her figure.

Shelby’s tongue had been tied up in her mouth, _useless and lashed up,_ before her mind had shut down and the green eyes had shut closed to _stop staring_ at Toni with such intensity. Even here in the middle of the jungle, Shelby found her gaze drifting down to the tight fit of the leggings and… _huh… crap, man._

Being attracted to women was one thing in God’s book, but being attracted to an elf-like spirit that was implied to have lived through whole millennials on this Earth, well, _what the hell was that to God?_

Someone needed to inform Dave Goodkind.

Convention therapy didn’t really seem to have any chances of working.

_Sorry, father. Your daughter is taking sinful thinking to a whole other level._

She had a feeling that – somewhere up in Heaven – or whatever other body Becca found herself in or something – her dear friend was currently laughing her ass off at Shelby’s uselessness in front of a pretty face, no matter the owner’s true – _inhuman_ – nature. Well, wherever she was _, dear Lord, please, let her laugh._ She deserved it.

“You feel… weird”, Toni mumbled a step in front of her and Shelby blinked, realizing that she’d be walking lost in her head this whole time and, _suddenly_ , the glorious sound of water falling with force from a great height had filled the environment around them and six girls were currently yelling celebratory cries, running past Shelby and Toni to throw themselves straight in the water. Some paused before getting in – like Nora and Martha and Leah – the rest of them never lessening speed and force as they crushed through the surface and sank in the steam of clear water.

Shelby felt her mouth parting. She forgot to adress the kinda rude comment. _Felt weird, what did that even mean?_

She forgot to adress it, “Wow”, she breathed instead, taking in the marvelous sight in front of her.

The waterfall couldn’t be considered big, but it was indeed a tall one; the spilling water knocking on jarred rocks that snapped out of the cliff’s main body of stone. Even from here, Shelby could be reached by the spraying water drops and in seconds, the fabric of her clothes grew darker and wet. Tree roots gently slipped in the clear water, leading her gaze down its surprising depth and effortlessly trapping floating leaves and twigs away from the center of the small lake. The gathered body of water didn’t stay much; it was led to take the form of a gentle river through a rather narrow path, which was created by stones, roots and solid ground. The river’s body widened and its steam eased a few steps away from its creation point, opening up to an eased creek that flowed away in the depths of the jungle, probably to finish in the sea.

The trees crawled up the waterfall’s sharp cliff, climbing up and looking taller than usual above her head, but at the same time, their leaves and branches parted just enough and just right to let the rays of sunlight pass through and meet the moving water. It made the rippling surface of water reflect and illuminate the sun’s glow against the dark tree barks and the wet soil around the lake, creating wavering shapes of dull, golden light on them. The soil was wet under her feet, but firmly solid despite the water and its ability to turn it into mud. It stained the bottom of her shoes, and it’d later stain Shelby’s feet, but it was impossible to be concerned about it. There was just something so _pure_ about feeling the moist ground caressing her skin, staining it almost shyly – almost sheepishly. As if the ground was a creature of its own as well.

And then, even to Shelby’s own surprise, it was the air what shocked her the most. The jungle had the ability to get rid of the suffocating heat the beach held, replacing the dry weather with something chillier – another kind of humidity, surely a more bearable one. It didn’t make the air stick to their skin and make sweat drip, on the contrary, between the wild trees, the air sneaked straight through and took a trip inside their inner organs, making their lungs just a bit heavier, their heartbeat just a bit more prominent. But, here by the falling water, the oxygen passed easily through Shelby’s nose, and the air felt lighter and _clearer_ than any other place on this island. It allowed Shelby to deeply inhale the scents of the jungle with no effort or displeasure of having humidity and dryness sticking to her airways. The place smelled of water lilies, wet ground and fresh water, and this… this scent of… _trees_ after rain, this scent that couldn’t be described if you didn’t know the specific word.

Just as gentle as the sound of falling water, and as peaceful as the sound of leaves being caressed by the moving air, and as careful as the smells, Shelby could feel a pair of eyes studying the side of her face. Her own eyes had rolled closed at some point and her whole body swayed gently on uncomfortable shoes and clothes. Those realizations slowly brought her out of the tender fog the environment had created around Shelby’s thoughts, and the green eyes blinked open. Gleeful sounds of laughter and whooping, teasing voices reached through the sound of shuffling leaves, making a smile start to softly tug at the corners of her mouth.

She turned her head to find Toni staring at her with no shame, as if Shelby was something worth to look at. She was seated on a thick branch of the tree behind her, feet pulled up on the wood and arms wrapped around the bend knees, chin popped up on top of them. The brown eyes looked softer than any other time Shelby had ever seen and for a moment, they simply stared at one another.

To a third’s eyes, they looked completely entranced by the view of one another.

But they wouldn’t agree to that statement – even if it was as true as the oxygen in their lungs.

For now, Shelby stared and _stared_ because Toni completed the image of the scenery around them. She did so in a way Shelby found impossible to describe with words, but the sight of the elf-like spirit – _so solid and so real and breathtaking –_ made kind heat take in its first deep breaths. It warmed up her chest and limbs in a feeling as familiar as a blanket being laid on top of her body. As familiar as kissing Becca for the very first time, as soothing as remembering the way her little brother’s hand used to reach for her own before they passed a busy road. As peaceful as the old urge to curl up on the couch and in her daddy’s once-protective and safe hug. When Toni’s brown eyes blinked once, in surprise and very gentle hesitation, the comforting heat warmed and took the solid form of a flame.

A flame as simple as the one burning on top of a candle, small and peaceful and utterly carefree in its nature.

“ _Shelby, what are you doing, dude!_ ” Dottie shouted from the water, making Shelby and Toni blink in equal surprise. The blonde watched the way Toni’s body leaned back and the brown eyes blinked again, but the soft look didn’t go away, quite the opposite, it deepened in her gaze and gathered some strength. It felt behind its dazed fog and grew in confidence, taking in Shelby in a new, pleased sight.

In front of her, Shelby didn’t fight the smile that kept trying to form on her mouth, letting it spread and deepen in a full grin that filled her green eyes with its own light.

Toni chuckled to herself and a just as bright, lopsided thing appeared on her face. “Get in the water, human”, she rasped, lazily leaning back on the bark of the tree, limbs uncurling as rays of sunlight settled on top of the brown skin and obviously warmed it to the point of making Toni look close to purring. The brown eyes never looked away from Shelby and the smile that took a teasing edge.

“Are you going to watch me strip?”

It seemed like something flushed on the spirit's cheeks, brown eyes blinking for a few useless seconds, before something almost _shy_ clarifly fogged over them _._ The smirk dimmed into something gentle and then; “I mean, if you want me to”.

Shelby laughed at the bright glimmer in the brown eyes, and reached out to take off Fatin’s hoodie. From the water, the girls cheered as soon as Shelby let it fall in the pile of the rest of their clothes, rolling her shoulders once before diving straight in the deep lake and relishing in the caressing sensation of cool, clean water and bright, brown eyes.

_Yeah, fuck Dave Goodkind’s church._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, this is like 2.700 words, so like half the amount of my ideal chapter lengths. So as soon as I continue this scenes into a full chapter 3, I'm gonna be updating this one with the rest of it at some point.
> 
> Hoped you liked this one! I got emotional writing it and that doesn't happen often. But Shelby feels, man, they do it to me.


End file.
